J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Nantes, Angers and Saumur Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Théâtre Graslin, Nantes 1826

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Théâtre Graslin, Nantes’ 1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Verso:
Théâtre Graslin, Nantes 1826
D23154
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 2a
Pencil on white laid paper, 110 x 170 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘12 Steps’ centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘45’ top left, ascending vertically, ‘355’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner lightly worked studies of the architecture of Nantes onto this page. The structure on the right-hand side of the page has been identified as the neo-classical Théâtre Graslin located on the Place Graslin, north of the River Loire.1 There is a slightly later colour study of this subject on blue paper in the Turner Bequest; see D24579 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 14).
The theatre recurs on several pages in this volume. For a list of these, see the entry on folio 1 recto (D23151; Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 1).

John Chu
April 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p. 233.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Théâtre Graslin, Nantes 1826 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-theatre-graslin-nantes-r1184986, accessed 16 April 2024.